In old times, there
was a village having only one well for drinking water. One day a dog fell down
in the well and died.

The water became
filthy and undrinkable. The worried
villagers went to the old wise man for advice.

They were told to
take 100 buckets of water from the well so that clean water come to the surface
of the well. The villagers took 100 buckets but water status was same. They
went to the wise man again. He suggested to take another 100 buckets. The
villagers did the same but to no avail. They villagers tried third time to take
another 100 buckets as per the advice from the wise man but water was still
impure.

The wise said, How
come the whole well is polluted even removing this much considerable amount of
water. Did you remove the dog body prior to taking 300 buckets of water? The
villagers said, "no sir, you only advised us to take water out, not the
dog body !!!"

Several times in life we try to resolve our problems
without considering the root cause of the problems. We believe that we are
resolving the problem whereas actually we are working on the side effects of
problem and not the problem itself. The same is also true in coaching and therapy,
where sometimes the superficial problems are resolved whereas the root cause
remains undetected only to crop up again.

Some time ago, a
friend of mine punished his 3-year old daughter for wasting a roll of gold
wrapping paper. Money was tight, and he became infuriated when the child tried
to decorate a box to put under the tree.

Nevertheless, the
little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said,
"This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by his earlier
overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found that the box was empty.

He yelled at her,
"Don't you know when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be
something inside of it?"

The little girl looked
up at him with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it;s not empty. I
blew kisses into the box. All for you, Daddy."

The father was
crushed. He put his arms around his little girl, and begged for forgiveness. My
friend told me that he kept that old box by his bed for years. Whenever he was
discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the
child who had put it there.

In a very real
sense, each of us as parents has been given a gold container filled with
unconditional love and kisses from our children. There is no more precious
possession anyone could hold.

A water bearer in
India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried
across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was
perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long
walk from the stream to the master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half
full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only
one and a half pots full of water to his master's house. Of course, the perfect
pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made.
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable
that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of
what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day
by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to
you."

"Why?"
asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"

"I have been
able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack
in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house.
Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full
value from your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer
felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we
return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along
the path."

Indeed, as they
went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the
beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But
at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its
load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to
the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your
path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about
your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of
the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered
them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to
decorate my master's table. Without you being just the way you are, he would
not have this beauty to grace his house."

I heard the story
told recently about a king in Africa who had a close friend that he grew up
with. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred
in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day the king
and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and
prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong
in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the
king fired it and his thumb was blown off. Examining the situation the friend
remarked as usual, "This is good!". To which the king replied,
"No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to send his friend to jail.

About a year later,
the king was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals
captured him and took them to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some
wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake.

As they came near
to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being
superstitious, they never ate anyone that was less than whole. So untying the
king they sent him on his way.

As he returned
home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse
for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with
his friend. "You were right" he said, "it was good that my thumb
was blown off." And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just
happened. "And so I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It
was bad for me to do this."

"No," his
friend replied, "this is good!"

"What do you
mean, 'this is good'! How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a
year."

A man was sleeping
one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God
appeared.

The Lord told the
man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his
cabin.

The Lord explained
that the man was to push against the rock with all his might...

So, this the man
did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sunup to sundown, his
shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock,
pushing with all his might!

Each night the man
returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been
spent in vain.

Since the man was
showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by
placing thoughts into the man's weary mind. (He will do it every time!)

"You have been
pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't moved." Thus, he
gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a
failure.

These thoughts
discouraged and disheartened the man.

Satan said,
"Why kill yourself over this? Just put in your time, giving just the
minimum effort, and that will be good enough."

That's what the
weary man planned to do but decided to make it a matter of prayer and to take
his troubled thoughts to the Lord.

"Lord,"
he said, "I have labored long and hard in Your service, putting all my
strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not
even budged that rock by half a millimeter.
What is wrong? Why am I
failing?"

The Lord responded
compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you
accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of
your strength, which you have done.

Never once did I
mention to you that I expected you to move it.

Your task was to
push.

And now you come to
Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really
so? Look at yourself.

Your arms are
strong and muscled, your back shiny and brown; Your hands are
callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard.
Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that
which you used to have. True, you haven'tmoved the rock.

But your calling
was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My
wisdom.

A turtle family
decided to go on a picnic. Turtles, being naturally slow about things, took
seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home
looking for a suitable place. During the second year of their journey they
found a place ideal for them at last!

For about six
months they cleaned the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the
arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic
without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion,
the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was
the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and
wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat
until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left.

Three years passed and
the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years... then on the
seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his
hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich.
At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree
shouting, "See! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the
salt."

Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up
to our expectations of them. We are so concerned about what others are doing
that we don't do anything ourselves. Often we wait for people to make , what we
think are, mistakes so that we can 'get back' at them. Its a mindless and
fruitless exercise doing so. You do the right thing without waiting for people
to do what you think is their bit...

Anthony Burgess was
40 when he learned that he had only one year to live. He had a brain tumor that
would kill him within a year. He knew he had a battle on his hands. He was
completely broke at the time, and he didn't have anything to leave behind for
his wife, Lynne, soon to be a widow.

Burgess had never
been a professional novelist in the past, but he always knew the potential was
inside him to be a writer. So, for the sole purpose of leaving royalties behind
for his wife, he put a piece of paper into a typewriter and began writing. He
had no certainty that he would even be published, but he couldn't think of
anything else to do.

"It was
January of 1960," he said, "and according to the prognosis, I had a
winter and spring and summer to live through, and would die with the fall of
the leaf."

In that time
Burgess wrote energetically, finishing five and a half novels before the year
was through (very nearly the entire lifetime output of E.M. Forster, and almost
twice that of J. D. Salinger.)

One year to live
But Burgess did not die. His cancer had gone into remission and then
disappeared altogether. In his long and full life as a novelist ( he is best
known for A Clock-work Orange), he wrote more than 70 books, but without the
death sentence from cancer, he may not have written at all.

Many of us are like
Anthony Burgess, hiding greatness inside, waiting for some external emergency
to bring it out. Ask yourself what you'd do if you had Anthony Burgess's
original predicament.

Ask Yourself: "If
I had just a year to live, how would I live differently? What exactly would I
do?"